4:33 a.m. 

That's what time Lleyton Hewitt completed his five-set win over Marcos Baghdatis this morning, making it the latest finish (or earliest, depending on your point of view) in the history of Grand Slam tennis. This absurd ending time - which meant most Australians were fast asleep (notwithstanding the 15,000 or so fans that stuck it out till the bitter end, and I must confess that I was not one of them) - came about when Roger Federer's own epic five setter against Janko Tipsarevic ended after 9 p.m. That put the night session two hours behind, with two matches - Venus Williams-Sania Mirza followed by Hewitt-Baghdatis - on the schedule. While officials could have moved the Venus-Mirza match to Vodafone Arena or simply postponed it until today, the two women players were consulted and declined. The man also agreed to play. This is what Venus had to say in her post-match interview after beating Mirza:

Q.  Is it correct that the referee or the scheduling people gave you the option of not playing tonight and holding over to tomorrow?

VENUS WILLIAMS: "I'll tell you a synopsis of what happened, and I really don't want to take any more questions about that. But basically the day session went longer, and, you know, the tournament did ask if Sania and I would consider playing at Vodafone or playing tomorrow. Both of us didn't want to, for reasons that we felt like our match was important.  We also felt like we wanted the schedule to go as planned and that, you know, we are very good players and wanted to play. Also for the fact that we were in doubles and Sania is also in mixed.  So that makes it very difficult for us too.  So the tournament definitely listened to us, and gave us the opportunity to go out there and play some great women's tennis. I think we're both happy with the result of what the tournament chose, and we played some good tennis for the crowd."

Venus obviously has a legitimate point and I think takes a stand here for women's tennis. But I think it was a poor choice for Tennis Australia officials and the match referee to go on with Hewitt-Baghdatis match. Officials have the option to delay a match that begins after 11 p.m. until the next day, which they could have done since Hewitt-Baghdatis started just before midnight. Some fans were apparently fuming when they were kept waiting outside until the night session began, and certainly many bailed before the match concluded in the wee hours of the night. On the other hand, many fans who had traveled to see the marquee Saturday night clash would have raged had it been moved to Sunday. Still, is it fair for Hewitt, who did his press at 5:30 a.m. and probably went to bed long after the sun came up when his opponent gets a full day's rest? Tennis Australia officials will reportedly review rules governing night sessions when the tournament ends.

Seeds fall, Blake and Federer Survive

The last two days have taken a toll on the top seeds here after a relatively calm first four days. In the last 36 hours or so, No. 2 Svetlana Kuznetsova, No. 6s Andy Roddick and Anna Chakvetadze, and No. 7 Fernando Gonzalez crashed out of the tournament. Finally, the Aussie Open's usual volatility has taken hold.

One player who seemed sure to join them was James Blake, who climbed out of a two-set deficit to beat France's Sebastien Grosjean to move into the last 16. In the fourth set, No. 12 Blake also trailed 1-4 (including two breaks) and 1-4 in the tiebreaker, but managed to go for his shots successfully in the big moments, ripping two returns for clean winners. For a guy who has the worst five-set record of any player in the Open era (1-10 before today) and who had never come back from a two-set deficit, it's a big confidence booster. Now, some might saw he should never have gotten himself into that position against 46th-ranked Grosjean, but....

"That's got to be my biggest comeback, I would say," remarked Blake, who has yet to advance beyond the quarterfinals of a major and next faces young, towering Croat Marin Cilic, who took apart Gonzalez in four sets. "Just seemed like every time there was a mountain to climb. Couldn't have been a better feeling than to accomplish what I did and come back and play so well and feel like I was fresh physically, and mentally stayed focused the whole time, even when I was down."

Federer's epic 6-7, 7-6, 5-7, 6-1, 10-8 defeat of Fyodor Dosystoevsky fan Tipsarevic was certainly the match of the tournament so far. Even if the Swiss No. 1 was off his game at times, Tipsarevic pushed him from start to finish and often dominated their baseline rallies. What stands out is how much Federer's serve bailed him out in crucial moments. He hit a career-best 39 aces and never faced a break point in the last two sets, suggesting that Federer's serve is a far underrated weapon in an already large repertoire of offensive artillery.